


Death is Not a Surrender

by orphan_account



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: F/M, I like to pretend I can write, Shippy, everyone dies, slight AU, two chapter drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-14
Updated: 2013-05-14
Packaged: 2017-12-11 21:32:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/803481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A short drabble, giving insight on what Roy and Greed thought of the ladies in their life, and what those ladies thought of them.<br/>Slight AU, warning for character death.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Kings of War

He loved her too much to subject her to all of him. Roy was too much for Riza. Too broken, too angry. He'd only hurt her. That was why she remained his Queen, and his love stayed unspoken. Between them, no words were needed. He would succeed in his mission to overthrow the Fuhrer and set up a better government, not just for the country, but for her. She deserved to know that all her sacrifices were not in vain. For Riza, Roy would be anything she needed sans a lover. Even a king.

None of it was for Martel, or maybe it was. Somewhere deep down inside, Greed knew what it was he really wanted and he still couldn't have it. That fact infuriated, invigorated and hurt him all at the same time. Surrounded by minions, and yet so alone, Greed sometimes felt like a statue. They admired him, feared him, and some even loved him, but he couldn't bring himself to feel anything for them. Not even for his little serpentine queen. So, perhaps, it was all for her in the end, that she might see he was only a monster trying to be a king.

Havoc was dead, and it was his fault. Now Riza would die, too, all because of him. All of it was because Roy couldn't keep out of things he had no business in. His mind swung around to Maes. "Oh god. I never meant for this." He hadn't wanted them to die, not any of them. Roy fought to stay conscious, and stood shakily. Slowly and painfully, he made his way to where Riza should be. At first he couldn't see her, and then everything became worse. Tears were still drying on her cheeks, and her gun had fallen from her hand. Lust had really done a number on her- had he not known her so well, for so long, he might not have recognized the mangled corpse. Roy knelt beside Riza and cradled her body, closing his eyes. He died holding her that way, leaned against a wall. If he'd been a particularly religious person, he might have thought he heard a funeral bell pealing somewhere. He might also have felt as though someone walked across his grave. He felt none of these things, and saw no light, only a comforting blackness.

Greed might have laughed, if he'd been together enough to think about anything but the agony in his body. In all his long, long life, he'd never feared death, until now. He hadn't even known his brother existed till this day. Father could never get over his abandonment, and he should have known that dear old dad would send an assassin eventually. In his pride, Greed had thought he'd been perfectly protected, and now look what had happened. His stone was broken, out of energy and could not save him. The only people he'd ever come close to caring about were dead, slaughtered wholesale. No, scratch that, he had cared for them. They weren't just his underlings. Especially not Martel. For just a moment before he died, he was almost able to say what he had not ever voiced. The chimera were his...  
"Martel, I..."  
The king was dead. Long live the king.


	2. Queens in Truth

In some ways, Riza would always know she was Roy's queen, and that it was why they would never be together. A king never sacrificed his queen by revealing her purpose. That's why it never bothered her when he would flirt and tryst with the multitude of women he did- they meant nothing to him, not when it really mattered. At the end of it all, when judgement was called down on him, it would be her standing beside him. Riza Hawkeye would be with him until the very end and none of his women could say that. In truth, if not in fact, they were married. He was her king, her commander, and her would always be Riza's everything.

Martel would always be Greed's loyal second, and she could see the same in the other blonde woman. So different, and so very alike, they were the queen pieces of their respective superiors' chessboards. It still made her jealous and angry to see the homunculus dally with other men and women, but that was just who he was. He acted out of his sin, and a desire to be as human as they were, a desire that contrasted sharply with his plans for domination and immortality. She couldn't fight it, though. When you lived with Greed, you got used to such things. Besides, he was the Boss. He'd always be the Boss, no matter what lay unspoken between them.

Tears had not graced Hawkeye's face in years, but today she wept openly. All that they had sacrificed, only to see Roy fall to some heartless homunculus. It was too much for her. She screamed out her rage and grief at the creature that called itself Lust, the same creature that had seduced and murdered Havoc. All of her pain, her guilt at her unfinished work showed on her face. When her gun was empty and her tears were done, Riza fell to Lust. Perhaps it was the homunculus that killed her, but more likely it was the weight of her broken promise. "I have someone to care for," she whispered, her words breaking the silence. The cloying scent of blood and death hung heavy in the air above her. In the end, Roy's queen failed him.

Martel did not weep. She did not cry, and she did not scream, only lay in the puddle of blood that wasn't entirely hers and broke. Dorchette was dead, and so was Roa, -they lay only a few feet away from her- but that wasn't the worst of it. Greed was gone, stolen from those who loved him. She'd still been conscious when that wretched bastard murdered him in front of them. There was no kindness from the Fuhrer's government for them, not even in death, she realized. Even after they'd been tortured, set up, and experimented on, there was yet more pain in store for them. She resigned herself to her fate. It was her own fault, of course. She had not done what she was employed to do: protect Greed. He'd warned her that his family would come for him, and she had not listened out of pride. There had just been so many times it had seemed like he was dead for good and come back for her to believe he could really die. Now he was dead, and she lay dying beside him. For the first time in her life, Martel gave up. As her last breath was fading away, she muttered, "Long live the king."


End file.
